Before there was Star Wars Battlefront , there was a mod for Battlefield 1942 entitled Galactic Conquest that took the game’s setting and placed it in a galaxy far far away. The popular Counter-Strike franchise evolved from a Half Life mod that Valve decided to officially support. Game developers may have a lot of experience and knowledge when it comes to giving gamers what they want, but they will never be able to give gamers everything they crave. Thankfully, some developers put creation and customization tools right into their game for fans to tinker around with. Other developers openly embrace the modding community. This post-market outsourcing of design to the greater public often leads to new modes and styles of play that the comparatively small group of folks at a studio could never have come up with on their own.
On PC, the modding community is especially strong. Valve, likely due to its serendipitous history with mods, has incorporated the Steam Workshop into a wealth of titles available through the Steam platform. The Steam Workshop allows players, who may otherwise not possess the drive or knowledge to install mods, to easily access a slew of community created mods. Some of the most popular mods on the service are for Bethesda titles like Fallout 3 or The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim . Perhaps this is why Bethesda has decided to support mods for both the PC and console versions of its upcoming game, Fallout 4.
Bungie is another developer that entrusts the creation of new maps and game modes to its community. With the launch of Halo 3 , the company put a powerful map creation tool into the game called “forge mode.” Players went crazy for this mode and before long, Bungie was featuring community designed maps and modes in their multiplayer playlists. One mode that really took off was an assault variant called Grifball.
Grifball is a frenetic, rugby-esque match type created by Burnie Burns and Gavin Free of the enormously popular machinima group, Rooster Teeth. In Grifball, two opposing teams are dropped in a small, obstacle-free arena with melee weapons and are tasked with delivering an explosive device to the opposing team’s end zone. Rounds are finished after a single detonation and at the end of the match, the team with the most detonations wins. The mode was received so well that it went on to become an official playlist in Halo: Reach and Halo 4 .
Rockstar, prominently known for its Grand Theft Auto series, also includes customization options in its newest title, Grand Theft Auto V . With the powerful creation tools made available to them, players have created a long list of absolutely absurd game modes. Where Rockstar really shines is in its utilization of custom game types in matchmaking lobbies. Players can easily download different game types from the web and send out invites to their friend list and lobby effortlessly. These custom modes also reward players with in-game currency and experience points.
Elsewhere, in the world of Super Mario, fans have long been creating maps for others to play in a semi-underground online community. Nintendo has since embraced its fans desire to create with the release of Super Mario Maker for Wii U. Already a commercial hit, the game gives players a treasure trove of Nintendo-created assets to use however they see fit. Some stages are musical, some are gimmicky, and others are unforgiving in their difficulty. Playing the game unlocks more tools for players to use. It was a brilliant move on Nintendo’s part, attracting a variety of gamers to what is essentially a repackaging of old games. Of course, Little Big Planet for Sony’s PS3 did a similar thing, first. Despite not having the brand recognition that Mario has, that game also managed to achieve success in its own way.
It’s clear that gamers, being such a large group, are more than capable of generating some very strong ideas. As a general rule, games that encourage design will see communities spring up around them and will enjoy longer life cycles than those that only offer developer created content. It is even possible that this growing trend could motivate younger audiences to pursue a job in game design one day as they start acquiring knowledge of what does and doesn’t amount to compelling design.